names are now less known, enjoyed the refreshing foretaste of that perfect communion into which they have subsequently entered into heaven. They found it good and pleasant thus to dwell together in unity; but the dew of Hermon was in this case but the early dew which passeth away. They were nearer the millennium in their spirits, than in the times on which they were cast. Political dissensions, connected with the French revolution, arose. The subjects of dispute were never entertained in the ministerial conference, but they separated its members from each other.

In his own pastoral walks, Mr. Lambert continued to enjoy peace and prosperity. The flock steadily increased. The chapel in Blanket-row became too strait for them, and a second and larger sanctuary was reared for them in Fish-street. To this they removed in July 1782. The last sermon preached in the old chapel was from Exodus xxxiii. 14: "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." To the record of the event is appended the prayer, "Lord, go with us to our new habitation. A palace, yea a temple magnificent as that built by Solomon, would be an empty place without thy presence." At the opening services, the Rev. Thomas Groves of Rotherham, and the Rev. S. Bottomley of Scarborough, preached. This chapel at length required enlargement, to accommodate the still increasing congregation, and was extended to its present dimensions in 1802. It marks the matured estimation in which Mr. Lambert was now held by his own people and his fellow-townsmen, that at the re-opening, no other ministerial attraction was deemed necessary beyond that which was found in the influence of his own name and character. He himself preached from these passages, so appropriate to the circumstances of the case, and the pleasantness of the relation in which pastor and people stood to each other. Exod. xxxv. 29. "The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the Lord, every man and woman whose heart made them willing to bring, for all manner of work which the Lord commanded to be made by the hand of Moses;" and Psalm xxii. 22. "I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee."

The qualities which gave him so much influence at home had been gradual and silent in their development, but steadily progressive in their operation. There was also a constitutional timidity, and shrinking sensitiveness, in his character, which

prevented their full manifestation on any ground but that on which he found a firm and familiar footing, and felt the confidence of friendship in those who were around him. The probability therefore is, that in the councils of the founders of the Missionary Society, at which he was present, and in the delivery of the sermon which he preached at its first anniversary meeting, in May, 1796, he would yield to influences which would carry him below the ordinary average of his powers, instead of feeling the excitement which impels to an extraordinary effort. The sober estimate recorded of the sermon is, that it was "plain, serious, and persuasive." But the cause of the Society was in his heart. He pleaded it annually with his people before the local auxiliary was formed, and made a regular entry in the church-book of the sum he remitted to the treasurer.

In January, 1812, he presided at the formation of the Hull Juvenile Auxiliary to the London Missionary Society, and in August of the following year, he welcomed to Hull a deputation sent by the Directors to organize a more enlarged association, which was denominated "The Hull and East Riding Auxiliary." The visit for that purpose of Bogue, Waugh, Burder, and Bennett, was to his own mind most cheering, and to the cause very productive; and the proceedings on that occasicu, and on the next and following anniversaries, the only seasons of the kind he was permitted to enjoy, are very fully entered among the memoranda of the church under his pastoral care.

It was Mr. Lambert's happiness to have around him an active as well as liberal people, who were ready on all occasions to second, and sometimes even to anticipate, his own benevolent desires for the diffusion of the gospel. The rapid erection of the first chapel in which he preached in Hull, was attributable to the zeal and energy of one of his earliest friends, who was a builder by profession. Nor was it in Hull only that this peculiar talent was consecrated to the service of God. Those who were endowed with gifts for instruction and edification, employed them in self-denying exertions through the surrounding neighbourhood, and the skill of the builder was repeatedly required to furnish permanent accommodation for the congregations which were formed. In one instance, the pen, as well as the voice, was employed, and the seed of that most useful tract, "The Swearer's Prayer, was dropped in a sermon from Mr. Lambert's lips, quickly germinated and blossomed, and continues still to bear fruit."

Mr. Lambert's labours were frequently subject to interruptions from the feebleness of his health; and in 1808, his strength had so far failed, that it was deemed advisable to procure permanent assistance in his ministerial work. The Rev. G. Payne (afterwards of Exeter,) was first associated with him in this employment; and on his removal to Edinburgh, in 1812, the Rev. G. Browne, afterwards of Clapham, succeeded him, and continued a harmonious fellow-labourer with Mr. Lambert till his death.

That event only remains to be narrated. The following account of the scene was furnished to the sorrowing church and congregation by a beloved daughter, who still survives :

"For some years before my father's last illness he was very much troubled with an oppression in his breathing. The disorder which produced it was an ossification of the heart. But his work was not yet finished. He was still in a state of trial, and had to learn they do his work who wait his will.' He had still to glorify his Master in the fire of affliction, and richly to experience the truth of the promise, 'As thy day is, so shall thy strength be.' In September, 1815, he went to spend a short time with a friend a few miles from home, and, while there, his disorder seemed to have increased, but when he returned home he appeared to his family to be much as usual. On Lord's day, October 1st, he preached with his accustomed animation and fervour from Job xxxvi. 3. I will fetch my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker;' but he found such difficulty in going to and returning from chapel, that he thought 'Surely my work is done.' From the commencement of his last illness he said it would terminate in death, and he would often dwell with joyful anticipation on the subjects of death and eternity. In former illnesses the concerns of his family and the church pressed on his mind with great weight, but now he had no uneasy thoughts. He was enabled to leave all his concerns in the hands of his gracious Redeemer-casting all his care upon him.' He was exercised with most excruciating pain, particularly in the night, but not a murmur ever escaped from his lips. At those times he often had near and sweet communion with his God, and clearer views of the Redeemer's sufferings and death than he ever enjoyed before. To all his family it was evident that he was ripening for glory. There was such earnestness and holy fervour in his petitions in family prayer, that he appeared like one who pleaded with a friend, and who could not be denied. On the Saturday preceding his death, he had a very painful night, and in the morning was much weaker. He left his room and walked into his study, and said to a near relative, "To die is gain;' but my breathing is so bad I cannot tell you how great gain." Not more than an hour before his death, the physician came. He acknowledged his obligations to him, and said, 'Doctor, I am not afraid to die. The gospel I have preached, and the Saviour I have exhibited, support me.' A short time after, he walked to the sofa, assisted by one of his sons. He was asked if Mr. Browne should be sent for. He replied, No. The service is begun; but give my love to him, and all the church. I am yet in the valley, but the staff supports me, and the rod points straight forward.' The difficulty in breathing increasing, he said, 'Come, Lord Jesus! come quickly! Why is his chariot so long in coming!' Then reclining his head on the shoulder of one of his sons, he exclaimed, 'Come! come! come!' and his emancipated spirit took its flight to the throne of God, at half-past two o'clock on Lord's day, March 17th, 1816."

He was interred on the following Friday in a vault prepared beneath the pulpit in which he had preached. All parties scemed anxious to honour his memory by uniting in the funeral

solemnities. Tradesmen closed their shops as on a day of general mourning. The clergy walked to his grave arm in arm with their Dissenting brethren. The procession of mourners seemed interminable in its extent. A more sincere, spontaneous, and universal homage to departed moral worth and Christian excellence, was never offered than the inhabitants of Hull that day paid to the mortal remains of George Lambert. Many funeral sermons were preached both in the pulpits of the Establishment and among the various denominations of Dissenters on the Sabbath following his death; and on Sabbath, March 31st, the Rev. E. Parsons, of Leeds, preached a discourse on the event, to the bereaved church and congregation, which was subsequently published. This service was closed by reading, amid the most profound silence, bordering on awe, an exhortation, or farewell address, recommending to his beloved flock, unity and brotherly love it appeared as if it came from the grave of their departed pastor.

The following inscription on a monument erected behind the pulpit in which he preached, will give an appropriate close to this sketch of his history:

By the bereaved People of his Charge, this Monument, near which are interred his remains, is erected in memory of

THE REVEREND GEORGE LAMBERT;

for near half a century the Pastor of this Christian society, nurtured from its birth by his ministry, and left by him flourishing in numbers and in peace; to testify, when their tongues can no longer utter his name, and an age shall have arisen which knew him not, how God favoured the church by the long-continued labours of a minister, whose meek wisdom, enlightened charity, and holy deportment, whose mild fidelity, tempered cheerfulness, and chastened zeal, were accompanied by the conspicuous blessing of God, and secured for him the universal esteem of man: and, to recommend to his successors, like him to preach Christ both in their sermons and in their lives, that, like him, after turning many to righteousness, they may shine as the stars for ever and ever.

He was born January 31st, 1741-2; accepted the charge of this church April 9th, 1769; and entered into rest March 17th, 1816.

392

MEMOIR

OF THE LATE

REV. SAMUEL GREATHEED, F.A.S.

OF NEWPORT-PAGNELL.

THE subject of the following memoir was the intimate friend, for many years, of Cowper the poet, and ranked, in his day, as a man of taste and letters. The original bent of his mind was acute and discriminating, and by close study, and long-continued application to books, he possessed himself of stores of information, in various branches of knowledge, by no means general, either among clergymen or dissenting ministers, at the period when he occupied the largest space in the public eye.

He was born in London soon after the middle of the last century. His father was a principal clerk in a banking-house of respectability in the city of London, where he acquitted himself with distinguished honour and fidelity; and was nephew to Samuel Greatheed, Esq., for many years member of parliament for Coventry, and an ancestor of the Bertie Greatheeds of Guy's Cliff.

The subject of this sketch was, by his own express choice, educated as a military engineer, at a school which was then conducted in the Tower, under the patronage of the master of the ordnance, then Lord Townsend; by whom, owing to the talent and zeal evinced by him in his studies, he was sent out to the Canadas, as an assistant engineer.

Up to this period of his history, he lived "without God, and without hope in the world;" not only neglectful of eternal interests, but greatly addicted to the folly and dissipation of life. His removal to a foreign land might have been expected to give an impulse to all those influences which made him a "lover of pleasure more than a lover of God;" but how sovereign and inscrutable are the ways of the Eternal! This event in his history was overruled by that Saviour who had thoughts of mercy concerning him, as the occasion of plucking him "as